The present invention relates to a process for lowering nicotine contents in tobacco, in particular to a process for lowering nicotine, tar and additional toxic components in tobacco leaves by using Chinese medicine.
Since tobacco has been introduced from Native Americans to Europeans according to discovery of America continent by Columbus, the tobacco has been rapidly spread around the world. Once the tobacco was used for a psychical cure and was used for ceremonies such as burning incense, but habituation and toxicity of the tobacco are gradually known to the general public.
The toxicity of the tobacco on body and mind is well known. In particular, women smokers increase in recent years and an age group of smokers lowers gradually, considering the trend the toxicity of the tobacco on individuals and over all society can not be ignored any more.
The tobacco comprises about seven thousands of particulate and gaseous materials, among them about thirty materials are lethal to a human body such as a benzopyrene which has been found as an inducer of cancer, tar, carbon monoxide which exhausts oxygen in blood, a material inducing bronchitis and a nicotine having strong addiction. Among them the nicotine is a strongly addictive material as same as a narcotic drug including toxicity of itself, on that ground a plurality of smokers can not quit smoking due to nicotine toxication. The nicotine was distinguished from cocaine in the past due to a misunderstanding that the nicotine is not habit-forming material, but now it has been identified as the habit-forming material. FDA (Food and Drug Administration) of U.S.A. officially defines the tobacco as a toxic material, and recently the WHO (World Health Organization) declares a war against the tobacco.
The nicotine representing the toxicity of the tobacco is a colorless alkaloid, it induces vomits, dizziness, headaches, it is not destroyed during smoking, but is inhaled in a lung, and reaches a brain in seven seconds. The nicotine is not only habit-forming, but also very toxic, its lethal dosage of an adult is 1 mg per 1 Kg of an adult weight. Accordingly if an adult with the body weight of 60 Kg takes 60 mg of the nicotine in the blood at once, the adult will be killed. Given that the average nicotine content of a piece of cigarette is 10xcx9c20 mg, chewing 3xcx9c6 pieces of cigarette will lead to a death. Considering that the lethal dosage of a potassium cyanide is 150 mg/60 kg of adult, the toxicity of the nicotine is as high as two or three times of that of potassium cyanide. Thus, the nicotine is a deadly poisonous material.
Accordingly, low-nicotine cigarettes were developed a lot and even other herbs were used as substitutes of the tobacco, however they were not satisfying to lower contents of the nicotine. In the latter case, they do not have the nicotine, but can not provide any flavor or taste of the tobacco either.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a process for lowering nicotine and other toxic contents in tobacco.
Another object of the present invention is to provide the process for lowering the nicotine and other toxic contents in the tobacco, and preserving flavor of the tobacco of its own.